Telecommunication, data communication, high-performance computing, and the like systems are typically deployed physically in a chassis. For example, a typical chassis is either 19, ˜21, or 23 inches in practice. A rack unit (abbreviated as U or RU) is a unit of measure describing the height of equipment intended for mounting in the chassis, e.g. one RU equals 1.75 inches (44.45 mm) in height. Various standards associated with chassis, racks, or frames are described by Telecordia's GR-63-CORE, “NEBS Requirements: Physical Protection” (04/2012), European Telecoms Standards Institute (ETSI), American National Standard Institute (ANSI), etc. As systems scale in capacity, speed, processing power, etc., cooling becomes a major limiting factor in system design. In chassis-based systems, achieving even airflow distribution across an entire depth (front to back) of plug-in cards is important to ensure proper cooling. Airflow always takes the path of least resistance and techniques must be used to ensure all areas receive adequate airflow so that the electronics and optics are adequately cooled. In a system that has fans distributed in a two dimensional matrix across a top of the chassis, such as illustrated in FIG. 1, the fan configuration ensures even airflow from front to back; however, this technique has disadvantages including 1) additional plenum space is required to turn the air, which increases the overall size of the chassis, 2) air is being turned at the point where speed is highest resulting in an undesirable pressure drop which negatively affects the cooling performance of the system, and the like.